Illegitimate Tasks Lead to Time Theft: The Effect of Job Anxiety and Dependence on Intelligent Machines

• 1、School of Business,Ningbo University,Ningbo,315211,China

Abstract：Based on conservation of resources theory, this study aims to explore the impact of illegitimate tasks on employees\' time theft behavior and its underlying mechanism. By collecting paired data from 321 employees at two time points, hierarchical regression analysis and Bootstrap methods are used to test hypotheses. The study results show that: illegitimate tasks have a significant positive effect on employees\' time theft behavior. Job anxiety mediates the positive relationship between illegitimate tasks and time theft. Dependence on intelligent machines moderates the effect of illegitimate tasks on job anxiety, such that the positive impact of illegitimate tasks on job anxiety becomes weaker when the level of dependence on intelligent machines is higher. Dependence on intelligent machines also moderates the indirect relationship between illegitimate tasks and time theft via job anxiety, such that this indirect effect becomes weaker when the level of dependence on intelligent machines is higher. The findings of this study contribute to the knowledge about the negative consequences of illegitimate tasks and provide practical management implications for organizations.

Keywords： illegitimate tasks time theft job anxiety dependence on intelligent machines conservation of resource theory